Trump responds to Lindsay Clancy lawyer pardon plea: 'No win no matter what'

Grace Zokovitch, Boston Herald on Sep 13, 2026

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President Donald Trump responded to a pardon plea from Lindsay Clancy’s lawyer last week after the mistrial, saying the situation is within the state’s jurisdiction.

“It’s a very sad situation,” Trump said in response to a question on the pardon plea in runway video Sunday. “I certainly heard that, but look, it’s a very sad. There is no winner there. There’s no win no matter what you do. Three children are dead.”

Defense attorney Kevin Reddington went on “Good Morning America” on Sept. 8 after a mistrial was declared in the case of his client, a Duxbury mom accused of murdering her three young children in January 2023.

“I would hope that you would consider this young lady – the type of person she is and what she’s been through – and consider a pardon,” Kevin Reddington addressed the president in the television interview.

Clancy’s defense has not disputed she killed the kids – Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, eight months – but argued she was not guilty by reason of insanity as she was suffering from postpartum psychosis.

A Plymouth judge declared a mistrial on Sept. 4, more than a month after the trial began in late July. Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz has not stated whether his office will try the case again, and the judge set a status hearing for Sept. 29 at 9 a.m., estimating a retrial could happen as early as this fall.

Trump said Sunday the fate of the case is “actually a state situation, not a federal,” seemingly referring to federal law limiting presidential pardons to federal crimes, military court-martials, or D.C. convictions.

Initially after the mistrial, Trump said Clancy would “ultimately pay” for the killings during an Oval Office event, whether it be in a “mental institution or jail or something.”

Asked if he would call the state prosecutor at Reddington’s request, Trump added, “I appreciate that he feels that way.”

“He’s a good attorney; I’ve heard from other people he’s a very good attorney,” Trump said. “I hope they can work it out. That’s something they have to work out. It’s been very sad. There is no win there.”

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